


Atmosphere

by igrab



Series: Fill the Air [2]
Category: Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:49:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrab/pseuds/igrab
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>post-movie, Polly has some questions and Joe lets actions speak louder than words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Atmosphere

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VanaTuivana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanaTuivana/gifts).



"...I did _not_ leave the lens cap on!" Polly gave him her very special brand of 'why would you even _do_ that?' look. He was very familiar with it. Unfortunately, Joe was too busy laughing to appreciate it properly, and he was laughing so he wouldn't start hysterically crying. It had been a long few days (weeks? Joe couldn't even tell) and he'd thought he was going to die (again) and he'd tried to save Dex but Dex had come to _his_ rescue instead (again) and he was thoroughly overtired.

Ten minutes later, Joe and Polly had gotten over both laughing and being angry, and had now progressed to 'bored'. There were animals landing around them everywhere, still, and it was going to be at least a day before they all got sorted out and sent to their respective homes - Joe and Polly included, most likely.

"I think we're drifting towards shore," Polly said hopefully.

They weren't drifting towards shore.

Another ten minutes, and Polly seemed to decide it was quiet and warm enough for personal-question-time. "Listen, Joe..."

"If you're asking about Kaji, the answer is 'maybe' and the rest I'll leave up to your overactive imagination."

She frowned. " _Joe_. I'm serious. You liked me once upon a time, and - "

"You _sabotaged_ my _plane_." He thought they'd been over this. _At least_ a hundred times. "If you can't figure out why I prefer to keep you _far, far away_ then you're more stupid than I thought."

Polly rolled her eyes and sighed. "No, I know _that_. Will you just let me finish?"

He waved a hand, exasperated. It wasn't like they were going anywhere.

"...You liked me once upon a time but you never loved me - that's true enough. And you like Franky but it's not like that, I know that too. I just - " she faltered, seemed to grow smaller and more nervous, which wasn't like her at all. She was a reporter; asking nosy questions was her business, and Joe had never seen her looking anything but confident (unless it was to be indignant and angry, which were usually his fault). "...Isn't there anyone you really love? You're this big hero, you know, and you're not very happy, and I wish you could be."

Joe had to remind himself that Polly hadn't seen him since Nanjing, since the slave camp had broken him and he'd had to be stitched back together from the inside out. She hadn't seen that he was was different now, because he was _almost_ the same - cocky, joking, assured - but what he'd been in Nanjing and what he was now was two different shades of person entirely, and it had all been due to her. He didn't like to admit that it'd made him better - but it had. He'd grown, and were he given the chance to redo his life, he didn't know that he'd change any one bit of it.

Well, _this_ adventure, maybe. He'd've never let Dex out of his _sight_ , Totenkopf or no, and whether Polly would have dragged him into saving the world anyway - a pretty reasonable assumption - he would at least do it knowing Dex was safe.

(The question was, would he have gone to so much trouble if Dex's life hadn't been on the line?)

Either way, it was still funny that Polly didn't know. Or he was still hysterical. Either one.

"It's not funny! Stop laughing," she complained, and he pressed his knuckles to one eye, still grinning manically.

"Oh, it is. It's very funny." He thought about telling her - he did - but just then he heard the sound of helicopter blades and knew instantly who was coming. "I'll say one thing, Polly. Yes. If you want to know any more than that, it's up to you to figure it out."

"Yes? There _is_ someone? Where is she? Do you - oh!" Now she could see it, too, the approaching helicopter with Joe's two favoritest people in the entire world (and sometimes he wasn't sure which was which). Franky was piloting, which left Dex to lean out the open door with one foot on the landing bar, his hair going everywhere from the downdraft and his shirtsleeves rolled up to the elbow. He looked ridiculously beautiful and he was saving their asses (again), and more specifically saving Joe from Polly's awkward conversations.

"So, I uh, heard you guys were floating out in the middle of the sea, might need a lift..." He grinned and offered his hand to Polly - ladies first.

She grabbed it and hauled herself up with a distinct lack of elegance. Joe tried not to laugh again. "Well, thank you. And least _some_ one around here is a gentleman." She disappeared into the copter and Dex stuck his hand out again, this time towards Joe.

His lips curled in a secret, perfect smile - one that held an infinite happiness behind it, tempered with smug amusement and a sure knowledge that Polly probably wouldn't want to see them grinning all over each other.

Joe, however, was done pretending. Not that he was any good at it to begin with but Polly had asked, she'd opened the can of worms and you know what, if she had a problem with it, that was her problem, wasn't it? Franky knew. Everyone at base knew. Practically the whole world knew but Polly hadn't figured it out yet, and Joe wasn't keeping it from her.

He smiled his best smile, the one from ear to ear where his eyes crinkled and his nose scrunched just a bit, and he took Dex's hand and climbed up - up, up, and too close for friends, close until Dex had to pull him into a hug and Joe wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his face in Dex's collar. He was home already, he thought. Home and safe, for the time being at least.

"Oy," Franky said, from the cockpit. "Sit down and hands off. It wouldn't do to have you falling out when we've just rescued you, would it?" She flashed a grin over her shoulder and Joe saluted her; yes, yes, thank you, the Dex-Franky team is at high functioning capacity, could we just go now?

Dex took the co-pilot's seat. Joe sat down next to Polly - Polly, who looked like someone had hit her in the face. He _grinned_.

"Dex?" she whispered in a high-pitched squeak. "It's _Dex?_ "

"Two years now."

"Two - " Oh. _Oh_. He could see the lightbulb going off in her head - two years since Nanjing, two years since - she didn't look happy about it, but she was, he supposed, satisfied.

"And you didn't even tell me?"

" _Polly_." He glared at her. "I've been trying very hard not to _despise_ you since then, didn't you know?"

"Oh, I know." She turned to look up at the back of Dex's head, and her eyes were just the smallest bit sad. "For a long time, I did, too."

+

They reached the base and Joe and Dex tumbled out with their arms around each other, trying not to trip on all the... rubble?

Oh, right. Their place had been ransacked.

Dex's face fell. "Cap, I'm sorry, they..."

Joe shook his head, fingers still tangled in Dex's own. "I found your note. That's how we were able to get to you. You know it doesn't matter?" he swept an arm around, indicating the whole destroyed lot. "We'll rebuild - "

"With who's money?"

" - or we won't, who knows? Maybe we should take a vacation."

Dex turned up to him and raised an eyebrow. "A vacation."

"Yes, like normal people, get away from all this - "

"From saving the world?"

"Yes, Dex, exactly that." He took hold of Dex's shoulders; he had to know how it felt, they both knew, now. To find that the one they loved might not come back - and having the strength not to believe that it was true. "Away from saving the world, from getting kidnapped and rescued and almost dying, just to be able to be _ourselves_ for a little while."

Dex still looked suspicious. "...You'll be bored in about a week. Give or take."

"Probably. So," and he smiled again. "A week of vacation?"

Dex, finally realizing he wasn't going to win this, gave in with a grin and an eyeroll. He should have known - Joe loved his harebrained schemes. That's how they'd gotten into this mess - into any of this. Joe, having ideas.

The government probably owed them a lot for saving the world (again), this mess was going to take forever to clean up, and they probably had to hire a whole new team - yeah. Some rest and relaxation, after all they'd been through, was probably well-deserved.


End file.
